The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-07-08

and decorative plants. There are MANY
/ boarding cottages and few cheaD hotels
/ ii Ocean Grove, and board Is cheaper
| there than ia the Park.
| The very atmosphere Of the place Is
| religious as well as fresh and cool and
healthful. Services are held almost con-
| tinually in the Tabernacle, and it would
be difficult to imagine anything grander
in q vocal way than the sound Of Sum
day congregation of 5000 persons sing
ing melodious hymn there, the sound
rolling out from under the roof and the
foliage as from a grander organ than
man ever did or ever will construct.
The strains of melody that well from the
houses and tents are of religious tunes,
and praying and Bible-reading often greet
the ear as one walks along. There are
many young persons and children in
Ocean Grove, but it is intended for adults
and the adult life there is designed by
and for those who built the place. AS
bury Park is for the worldly and the
young. 1t is religious but not
pious place. The consequence is that
the people in each place are constantly
moving to and fro, each going to the
other to enjoy the change and get amuse-
ment from it. Little Wesley Lake, a mere
trench full of water, is the field of 100
ferry lines, the vessels being rowboats
of the fiat-bottomed or baton pattern.
manned by little boys. Some are car
peted and all are shaded by awnings.
A very pretty scene, indeed, is that at
night, when the boats are all employed
by loads of girls and young men singing
and laughing, while the moving lights
CLEAN upon the water and the splashing
oars keep up liquid refrain that forms
a background to the singing. Once a
year there is boating carnival in which
all the rowboats are decked with bunt-
ing and festoons of colored lanterns.
The tent life in Ocean Grove is a
peculiar phase of midsummer enjoy
ment. Here one may see to what per-
lection the art of tent-making has been
developed. The little canvas houses
are very roomy and are partitioned
across the middle so as to provide a
parlor or sitting-room front and Sleep
double, the upper roof being a foot
above the genuine one to keep out the
heat of the sun, and to permit the ali to
circulate above the under one. There
are the quaintest little windows in the
sides of the tents-mere openings,
but ones that serve their purpose ex-
cellently by day and can be closed by
night. The tents are raised upon
wooden platforms which are carpeted
like house floors, and which extend
out beyond the tent in front to make
sort of piazza, shaded by the projecting
top of the tent and affording room for
the family to rest out of doors comforta-
bly, in hammocks, chairs and rockers
The kitchens are little wooden buildings
behind the tents. In these economical
and microscopic homes one sees carpets,
rugs, pictures, melodeons, costly folding
beds, handsome lamps, bookcases, parlor
tables and the cosiest sorts of appoint
ments generally. But at night these tents
are like lanterns, and knots of oilers
stand outside them at times watching the
gross shadows of the people within as
they move past the lamps. Shadow pan
tomimes of this sort are familiar means
of diversion in this queer resort.
A great deal of wit has been employed
at the expense of the people of Ocean
Grove because of the custom they have of
going to and from the surf in their bath
ing dresses. 1t certainly is remarkable
usage and productive of very funny and,
at first, startling exhibitions. don't know
that any one ever could get entirely ac-
customed to seeing young girls in blue
flannel waists, skirts and trousers, in old
yellow straw hats and stockings, without